Chapter 14: Sharing Tales

A/N: Hey everyone. I finally got around to finishing another chapter of this fic. Sorry such a long wait! I got really caught up in a few other story ideas I had and then I was back to start my second year of University which meant even less time for writing, but now that volume 4 of RWBY is back on, it inspired me to keep writing. I'll say outright that I don't think this is my best chapter. I really struggled to get it typed out. It mainly consists of stuff that I need to get through to progress the story but wasn't really anything that I really wanted to spend time writing about too much. I think it turned out ok though. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Please enjoy. Let me know what you think in the reviews.

Thank you for continuing to support this story. I've seen all your reviews over the past 2+ months and the continuing follows and subscribes. So again, thank you so much!

"So these Maidens that you're talking about are real?" Ozpin inclined his head. Harry turned to Pyrrha. "And this is a story you were told as a child?"

Pyrrha looked a little rattled from what she'd just learned but answered her partner anyway, "Yes. My mother used to tell me that story all the time as a child."

"So it's a story that almost every child in this world knows, yet it's actually true… it's not that surprising I guess. Back on earth, and even here on Remnant, everyone knows what a wizard is supposed to be, even if the common consensus is that magic doesn't exist."

"No matter which world, it seems it's always the children's stories…" Dumbledore muttered quietly, fingering his wand.

"What was that Professor?" The old wizard looked startled at the question.

"Oh nothing Harry… it's nothing. Just an old man's musings," he gave Harry a kind smile. Harry was sure it was more than Dumbledore was letting on, but he let go for now. "How do these Maidens' powers work? Is it a form of special semblance like you were telling me about before Professor Ozpin?"

"No. The Maidens are some of the few magical users that exist here on Remnant. As is stated in the story, each one is attributed to one of the four seasons, and their powers are heavily element based. They're powerful but they don't have the variety you have."

"Are they the same Maidens from the story or have the wielders of the power changed over the years?" Harry asked intrigued.

"No they are different. When a Maiden dies, the power is passed onto the next wielder. The thing you have to understand though is that the magic itself is sentient, and chooses its next host. It seems that sometimes it passes on to the last person in the Maiden's thoughts, and is of course only passed down to women."

Harry was amused that Ozpin felt the need to clarify, "That would make sense."

"And this is related to that woman you have in your custody? Is she one these Maidens?" Dumbledore cut in, making Harry realize that he'd forgotten the original reason for this conversation.

"That would make sense! I thought her abilities felt magical! Is that why her mind was protected? The magic of the Maiden powers is sentient?"

"All magic is sentient Harry. It's not a popular opinion with most modern day witches and wizards, seeing as they like the idea that the power is theres to control, but this fact is one of the few things I am completely sure of after my long life." Harry looked at Dumbledore feeling a little surprised. It was a strange thought that the force he was able to manipulate with his will was actually alive in a way.

Ozpin cleared his throat. "To answer your question Harry, yes, in a way you are right, but not completely. Miss Fall is the first case we've ever had of the Maiden's power being taken by force. Fortunately one of my associates was able to sever the connection before the transfer was complete so she only got a portion of the power. We've just barely been able to keep the rightful Fall Maiden alive since."

"What would happen if she were to pass away?" Dumbledore asked.

"We are not completely sure, but we believe the power would seek out its other half. It's still possible that it would seek out a new host like normal, but we couldn't take the risk of Miss Fall coming into possession of its full capabilities."

Harry nodded in agreement. He'd had some difficulty dealing with Cinder when she only had partial powers, he didn't want to know what it would have been like to face her at full strength. Glancing over at Pyrrha, who still seemed to be shocked by everything, he thought of something else that made him narrow his eyes. "How is Pyrrha related to all this? You said you had plans for her that you wouldn't tell either of us, but now you've brought her into this conversation."

Ozpin expression remained stoic, "I had been looking for a new candidate to take on the mantle of the Fall Maiden. Miss Nikos had recently become my first choice."

"What! M-me?" Pyrrha interjected before Harry could ask any more questions.

"Yes. Ever since initiation you have shown yourself to be one of the top students in your class, your combat ability is second to none, and your intrinsic kindness is plain for all to see. I don't see how we could find anyone better."

"Thank you," she ducked her head in embarrassment. Harry had to agree with the Headmasters observations. His girlfriend was still the most graceful person he'd ever seen move in a fight, and he knew she truly did have a heart of gold. He reached over and gave her leg a squeeze and smile, hoping to convey his thoughts to her.

Turning back, to Ozpin, he affixed his serious expression. Everything he'd just thought about wasn't what bothered him, it was what was left unsaid, "How was this supposed to work? I thought you said you can't control where the power goes?"

Ozpin shifted slightly in his seat. Harry almost didn't notice it, but it was enough that he could tell the Headmaster was uncomfortable with the current topic. He didn't say anything for a moment, but when he did it seemed to be with great reluctance, "We have some new technology designed by scientists in Atlas that should allow us to transfer the power to Miss Nikos."

Harry was starting to get a growing feeling of foreboding, "How does that work? There is no technology designed back on Earth that could affect magic in such a way."

Again, Ozpin waited a few moments before answering, "It works by transferring one person's aura to another."

There were gasps heard all around, and before he knew what he'd done Harry had jumped to his feet. "And what would that do to Pyrrha! Wouldn't that effect her own aura."

"We weren't sure but-"

"Weren't sure! This is Pyrrha's life! Her very soul! You were going to put her through this without knowing it would work for sure!" Harry demanded.

"No! Of course not… if you'd just calm down Mr. Pot-"

"Actually, I think I'd like to hear the answer to that as well." Harry glanced over at Dumbledore, who in the last few moments had drawn himself upward to the maximum of his own considerable height. His expression was dark, something he hadn't seen since his fight with Voldemort at the Ministry. "Magic relating to the soul is not something to be taken lightly. It's beyond what any human being should be dabbling in."

With a jolt Harry was reminded of what Dumbledore had told him Voldemort had done to his own soul that very morning. It seemed half of this Maiden's aura was trapped in Cinder. The very thought sent shivers down his spine.

"It's not something we'd ever wanted to have to do. It was set up as a last resort. I was actually hoping, especially now with all of you here, you could find a way around this problem with magic. At the very least a way to free the power that was stolen by Cinder Fall."

"You said you have the Fall Maiden in your custody?"

Ozpin hesitated for a moment, "We do."

"Good. Good. I'd like to see her if possible," and just like that Dumbledore's grandfatherly persona was back. You'd never know him from the intimidating wizard he'd been a moment before looming over the desk. "I'll try to cast a few diagnostic charms… see what I can discover. It will take a bit of time, and I'll have to think this through carefully. Sight unseen, I already have a few ideas to try and return the stolen power. It will all depend on how it was accomplished in the first place."

"I'll take you down to the vault later." Ozpin smiled graciously. "I believe that concludes everything that needed to be spoken of at the moment. Miss Nikos, please don't let this weigh too heavily on your conscious for the moment. Like Professor Dumbledore said, it will be some time before any decisions are made, and hopefully we have bought ourselves a bit of a reprieve with the capture of Cinder Fall."

"Yes, thank you Headmaster." Pyrrha said rising. Harry nodded his head respectively as he followed her out.

"Headmaster Ozpin, I also wanted to speak to you about the idea of putting up some wards around the campus to hel-" Dumbledore's words were cut off as the elevator door shut.

"How are you doing?" Harry asked taking Pyrrha's hand as he turned towards her.

"I'm fine," she smiled weakly. He raised on his eyebrows in question causing her to sigh. "Really, I'm doing fine. It was a lot to take in, so I just need some time to digest it all."

"Well if you need someone to talk to, I'm here." Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her into a hug, reveling in the feeling of warmth he got in his chest every time he held her close. After a moment he released her, pulling back so he could see her eyes. The uncertainty he'd seen there earlier was mostly gone, leaving only a warm adoration behind. Unable to help himself he leaned forward again, this time to capture her lips in his own. As it had seemed to happen often lately, the kiss quickly grew more heated. Even the ding of the elevator door wasn't enough to distract the young couple. They probably would have kept on going if it hadn't been the gasp of surprise that indicated someone else was there.

Quickly jumping apart, Harry and Pyrrha looked to see who had caught them, meeting the gaze of a very red faced Hermione. "I-I'm s-sorry Harry… Pyrrha. I was just coming t-to see where you were."

"That's ok Hermione. We just got out of a meeting with Ozpin," Harry tried to slow his racing heart, and control his own blush. Pyrrha didn't seem to be faring any better in the same endeavor, if her flushed cheeks were any indication. He tried to change the subject, "Actually, do you know where Ron is?"

"Oh…," she looked surprised. "I think he's turned in for the night already Harry."

"Oh ok... " Harry didn't bother to hide the note of disappointment in his voice. He was hoping to talk to his first friend and clear the air from earlier.

"He'll come around Harry. Like I said before, it was hard for him when you were gone. I know he might not always show it, but your friendship means alot to him. I don't think he ever considered you might not want to come back."

"I.. I see…" Harry scratched the back of his neck awkwardly trying to formulate a response. Suddenly he felt Pyrrha's hand on his shoulder. Looking back she gave him a comforting smile.

"Remnants been good for you Harry."

Hermione's strange tone of voice caught Harry's attention, "How so?" He noted that his friend almost seemed sad.

"Well the Harry I knew before could barely handle talking to girls other then me for the most part, now just look at you and Pyrrha. I found your snogging in the elevator for merlin's sake!" All three teens reddened once again at her reminder. "Apart from that, I've noticed you're a lot more confident, more self assured. You seem... happier."

"And that makes you sad?" Asked Harry confused.

Hermione scowled, "Of course not! Ron's not the only one who is sad that your staying here. It's just obvious to me that you belong here, and I wish you were coming home with us."

"Oh…," Harry searched for something to say once again, hoping to dispel the minefield that was their current topic of conversation. Hermione rolled her eyes. After a few moments of silence, Harry finally came up with an idea. "Say Hermione, what would you say to me showing you around the Beacon Library?"

The next day found Harry wandering down the halls of Beacon. He was still trying to track down his wayward best mate. The night before, though he had realized he'd probably soon come to regret it, he followed through on taking Hermione to the Beacon library. Once they'd arrived, he'd just tried step back and stay out her way on her ravenous quest to consume knowledge, lest he lose any limbs. They'd run into Blake on their trip, and the two bookworms had hit it off pretty quickly.

This morning however, Pyrrha, knowing that he wanted to talk to Ron, had tagged along with Ren and Nora as they went out. He'd gone straight to the rooms in use by the visitors from Hogwarts after that, only to find them already empty, thus leading to his current predicament.

"Hey Harry!" Glancing down the hall he was met with the cheery face of team RWBY's resident blonde brawler, one Yang Xiao Long.

"Yang, " Harry inclined his head in greeting.

"Cheer up Harry! You're always so serious. It's a beautiful day outside and right now you get to gaze upon my wondrous figure, what could be wrong?" She struck a pose and winked as she said this making him blush. He tried to force a bigger smile. Something she seemed to notice as her demeanor turned more serious. "What's up anyway?"

"Not much. I've just been trying to track down my one friend Ron."

"Oh! The tall redhead who's been perpetually grumpy since he got here?"

Harry winced at the last descriptor, "Yep… that's the one."

"I saw him walk by once earlier, but I'm not sure where he went to. I'm sure you'll find him though."

"Thanks Yang," he gave her a genuine smile this time.

"No problemo Harry!"

"What are you doing wandering the halls anyway?"

"Well your other friend Hermione stopped by this morning. I love my partner, I really do, but I can only take so much nerdy chat before I go crazy."

Harry smiled wanly, "Ah yes… Hermione sure does like to talk about her books."

"Understatement of the century my friend," she slapped his shoulder as she went by. "See ya later!"

"Bye Yang."

Harry spent another good portion of an hour looking for his friend before he finally gave it up as a bad job. Entering his dorm room he sighed, stopping in the middle as he tried to figure out what to do, not noticing that the door hadn't closed behind him. So it was in complete surprise that he felt the sudden extreme pain in his lower right leg. Crying out he dropped to ground as said leg no longer consented to hold his weight.

Looking around wildly through his watering eyes, Harry froze as he came face to face with a pair of familiar eyes. One brown the other pink. Recognizing who it was immediately, Harry scrambled for his wand. One well placed kick from the petite girl sent it flying out of his reach.

Yanking the bladed tip of her parasol out of his leg, how it had gotten past his aura he wasn't sure, she twirled it around, the point coming dangerously close to his face. Acting on instinct more than anything, he sent a wandless banisher that hit the girl head on, and sent her flying back. Hoping to capitalize on this chance, he attempted to stumble to his feet, only to realize that wasn't a good idea with his injured leg. Before he could come up with another plan, he felt something hard impact the side of his head. Seeing stars, it took him a few moments to realize the girl had bashed him with the handle of her umbrella.

The girl looked enraged now as her small body climbed on top of him, before she smiled cruelly making him shiver. He figured out why she was smiling a second later when her parasol came stabbing downwards through his arm and into the floor.

"Aggghhhhh!" Gritting his teeth Harry tried to force himself passed the pain so he could come up with a plan. One thing he was sure of was that this attack was personal for her. He didn't think it was due to their first fight at the docks, and thus was forced to concede that maybe this girl's relationship with her boss went a little deeper than he originally thought.

Raising his still good arm in attempt to banish her off him again, she started twist the blade in his arm, putting a stop to that, as she slapped his hand away. Just when he was starting to lose hope that he could come out of this encounter alive, he heard a voice.

"Hey get off of him! Expulso!"

All Harry saw was the girl's shocked expression before the curse slammed into her back, exploded, and sent her reeling through the air. As soon as he was clear, Harry got a firm grip on the weapon and ripped it free, keeping his teeth clenched against the pain. Climbing to his feet, Harry leaned heavily against the wall, as to keep most the weight off his injury.

"Alright there Harry?"

"Not too bad Ron, but next time try to stick to the non explosive curses when I'm so close to the target."

He nodded sheepishly, "Oh right… sorry about that."

"That's alrigh-" Harry was cut off as woman with multi-coloured hair lunged forward kicking out his bad leg and reaching for her weapon. Her clothes seemed singed, but it seems that her aura had taken most of the damage for her. Luckily for Harry, he'd moved in front of the bed at this point, so he didn't fall back very far. He somehow managed to keep a grip on the parasol, though the girl did try and wrench it out of his grip.

Rolling across the bed, the woman kept her hold as well and started twisting it back, forcing him to release his hand. Throwing out his other hand he managed to banish her back again, causing the swipe she'd just made, to only give the arm, that he'd risen to protect his face, a very shallow cut.

As Harry scrambled off of the bed and across the floor to recover his fallen wand, Ron was advancing on the girl. Just as he finally got his hands on it, he turned in time to see Ron be disarmed and take a hit to the chest that made him stumble back. Harry figured Ron had gotten too close to her, where he would be at a disadvantage in a fight. "Expelliarmus!"

The streak of blue light that left his wand impacted the girl and wretched the weapon right out her hands and into the air. Harry's follow up, "Confringo!" Proceeded to smash it into pieces.

The one thing he realized immediately was that if he'd thought the woman was angry before, it was nothing compared to her state of mind now. Pulling out a dagger she'd previously had hidden, she once more charged into the fray. Harry found himself glad for the training he'd been doing with Pyrrha. Even though he didn't have his sword here to fight in close quarters, if he hadn't learned to dodge properly like he was currently, he would have been dead several times over.

Over the next minute, Harry got much closer to her new weapon than he was strictly comfortable with, but it did allow him to notice some things that were quite peculiar. Instead of normal metal, the blade seemed to be made of some kind of sharpened black stone. Apart from that, Harry also noted that there several runic looking symbols painted along it as well. Harry wasn't sure why, but it gave him a bad vibe.

Tracking her movements with his eyes, he waited for the opening to eppear before rolling backwards and releasing a blasting curse. Just when the curse hit her, her image was shattered into million pieces. Feeling uneasy, Harry spun around just in time for the dagger aimed to slip between his ribs to miss. Taking a step back he tripped over something on the floor and fell backward. Seeing her chance, the girl lunged forward for a final time, intent on finishing this, when her blade was deflected off another arm.

It didn't cut to deeply, but it did cause the girl to drop her secondary weapon. Seeing that she was losing the battle, she clambered back to the exit, avoiding their spells through a complicated feat of gymnastics that left him impressed.

The door slammed shut to cover her escape, allowing the two boys to relax. Panting in exertion, Harry flopped down on the bed. "You ok Ron? It looks like she got you once?"

"Ya, I'm fine. It just a small nick with that dagger. How about you? You looked a lot worse when I came in. Should we take you to the hospital wing?"

"I should be fine I think. It's just a little tender now. My auras already started healing it." Harry sat up. "You see." He motioned to where new skin had already closed over the stab wounds.

"That's pretty crazy! Would be nice to have that for Quidditch injuries." Harry rolled his eyes, but agreed anyway

"That it would."

There was silence in the room for a moment. "You know… Harry. I wanted to apologize for snapping yesterday. It just took me a little by surprise. Despite the constant danger you find yourself in-"

"Hey!"

Ron continued on as if he hadn't been interrupted, "I don't really know what I'll do without my best mate back home. And you can't deny it, you were just almost killed by a girl with icecream hair! That's pretty strange even for you!"

Harry grinned before letting out a sigh, "It's ok. I'll miss you guys too, but I have a real life here now. I'm on my way to becoming a huntsman, I have Pyrrha, and no one has unreasonable expectations of me. Any celebrity I ever achieve will be on my own merits, not because my parents died and I didn't."

"I know mate. Hermione talked to me, and helped me straighten some things out. I won't say I'm happy about it but-"

Suddenly Ron stiffened. "Hey, you ok?" It only took Harry a second to realize that his friend was now clutching his arm tightly where he'd been cut moments before. After taking several moments to pry it away from the wound, Harry's eyes widened as got a good look at it. The skin around the cut had started blacken and harden.

Trying to keep a level head, Harry scanned the floor for the dagger. He locked onto it just as he saw it turned to dust before his very eyes. Even that faded a moment later. Cursing, he looked back at Ron who was now looking even paler. Luckily the black colour around his wound didn't seem to be noticeably spreading at all.

Knowing he had to get Ron to the hospital wing right away, he jumped into action, flicking his wand in his friends direction, "Mobilicorpus!" His friends body rose up to float in the air before him. Yanking open the door, Harry started jogging down the hall, with Ron suspended before him. He didn't care that he was currently covered in blood, he didn't care that his still healing leg was protesting all movement, let alone the strain he was currently putting on it, and he didn't care that a crowd of students were watching him in the halls as he blatantly used his magic in the open. All he cared about was saving his best friend.